Out and about on a Freitagnachmittag (Friday afternoon)

Yesterday we took a walk around the west side of the town along the river to find the music school, where they have free concerts nearly every night performed by the graduating students. On the way there, we passed these beautiful ships docked in the Trave River. The yellow one is a replica of a frigate, the Shtandart, that Peter the Great commissioned in 1703. It was built by a dreamer much like the Viking ship Hjemkomst in Moorhead, Minnesota was. You can board the ship for the price of a donation, so we did.

After that, we visited the Holsten Gate (Holstentor), built in 1477, which is the iconic symbol of Lübeck. It's the former western gate to the city, and was designed for defense, complete with chutes for pouring hot tar or boiling water onto enemies. Inside one room is a fireplace, which they say wasn't used for warmth: it was used for heating tar!

The Holsten Gate was badly in need of repair by the 1860s and was nearly torn down. The city asked the citizens to decide what to do, and the gate was saved by one vote. Today it's a good local history museum, and we spent the entire afternoon there. 

Afterward, we continued our walk along the river, and spotted these nutty guys. They must be pretty confident, because that water looks KALT!

It gets dark early in northern Europe this time of year -- the sun sets around 3:49 in Lübeck-- so the days are darn short. Before heading back to our flat, we stopped at the Weihnachtsmarkt for another Tasse of gluhwein, at a fancy place where they supply afghans and you can sit outside for people-watching. We could hear a brass band playing Christmas carols around the corner. Gary ordered a gluhwein laced with amaretto, but I prefer just straight wine. 

On our way home, we passed a half dozen beautiful bakeries, and took advantage of the luxury to choose the prettiest one, where we bought a kleine loaf of Weihnachtsstollen, for our teatime this weekend. More on bakeries soon!